Archive Events

Dec012011| 10:00

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Dec012011| 14:15

Community use of school sports facilities

Peninsula Sports Centre, Holbrook High School, IP9 2QX

Background

Education sites hold a valuable supply of sports facilities, some of which are utilised for developing and delivering community sport. Active Places tells us that 76% of sports halls and 73% of artificial turf pitches in England are on education sites. Some of the asset base is open and well-used whilst others remain closed to community access.

Education-based sports facilities could, if “unlocked” help grow club and community sports participation, improve satisfaction in sporting experiences and provide sustainable delivery models. However it is recognised that there are challenges. The Academies Bill could mean significant numbers of schools opting out of local authority control and a much-reduced role for local councils in education. There are opportunities however for schools to play a key role at the heart of the community.

Through a series of presentations from keynote speakers, and learning from the experiences of two case studies from this event aimed to provide delegates with:

an understanding and opportunity to debate some of the new and emerging issues and considerations around the agenda of community access to school facilities from different perspectives;

an opportunity to consider different models for improving access to school sites by the community;

some ‘tools in the box’ to support advocacy with schools around community access and ideas around business planning, management and operational delivery.

Presentations

Introduction - Richard Hunt, Chair of cCLOA gave an introduction into the importance of community use facilities and an overview of the challenges and opportunities for community sport and for schools.

Developing Effective & Sustainable Community Use Sports Provision- Colin Grogan, Sport Health & Inclusion Development Manager, Suffolk County Council and Duncan Wood-Allum, Director, SLC then presented the outcomes of a review of community use provision across 12 Suffolk schools in the South West Ipswich and South Suffolk (SWISS) Partnership. The process has also resulted in the development of an approach to achieving more sustainable operations and implementing improvements through a Community Use Support Framework.